Here's a very faded Tuscan Red MB62 leading an MP72C and either a MP72T or a T72 into Jamaica. On the right, leaving Jamaica, are a MP54B or MP54C and another arch roofed "54", both in the later "Tichy" paint scheme with Brunswick Green (?), or black, roofs. The first MP72C cars were built 7/1955, the first MP72T cars 8/1955 and the first T72 cars 10/1955. Since the trees are bare and the sun is low in the sky this is probably late 1955 or early 1956. Info: Jeff Erlitz Collection: Bill J. Madden

A MB62, or for that matter, any LIRR MU in Tuscan Red, and a pretty badly faded TR, is quite a surprise if not an anomaly as the Tichy paint scheme came into being in November 1949.  And yet, five or six years later, there's still a car in Tuscan Red with gold lettering!  By this time, cars are being rebuilt and repainted into the dark or smoky gray paint scheme, which means it is possible this car (number unknown) may have been rebuilt, but definitely repainted into the dark or smoky gray paint scheme, unless it was scrapped. Thus, there's a possibility that this car, if it stayed in service NEVER got the Tichy paint scheme. Info: Mike Boland

MANHATTAN private business car - Builder's photo
outside the Jackson & Sharp Co. plant 1885 (Votava-Keller)
 

Hospital Car

Coach #117 Destroyed
by fire 8/20/1910

LIRR #117 Hospital Car interior view outfitted, as a hospital car. View from operating room into Ward room in 1901. Archive: John Lisi

LIRR #117 Hospital Car 1897

LIRR #117 Hospital Car - Loco Engineering- page 771-774

Capacity 24 horses; two stalls on each side of the three doors.

The railroad's fleet of pre-war double-deckers in the years before the post-war fleet of 60 cars began to arrive in 1947. Double-deckers #201 and #1347 at Babylon Yard with MP54A #1418 and MP54C #1728 on March 8, 1947. Photo: George Votava Archive: Mike Boland

LIRR #132x Photo: R. Glueck

LIRR #1346 Photo: R. Glueck

134 cars  23 Cab controlled cars

LIRR #3101 RDC1 at Greenport 9/27/1959

LIRR #3121 RDC2 with Trailer 
at South Hampton 1956

They had clerestory roofs and came in 1930 to replace 50 P54D "pings" that were converted to MU control motors 1944 to 1983, later renumbered into the 4000 series.

#314-370 Scrapped at Holban Yard, 1952
 

LIRR #316 Builders photo 5/1911 Archive: Jeff Erlitz
Collection of Electric Railroaders’ Assoc, Inc

P54D #1 Richmond Hill Receiving Yard turntable
Late 1960's (Henry Maywald-Mike Boland)

P54D #7129 Richmond Hill - Late 1960's
(Henry Maywald-Mike Boland)

Nos. 2901-2980 except
2949 & 2957

2990-2992, former 2905, 2970, 2957

7526, 7533-41, 7545-7549

7522-7525, 7527, 7530-31, 7540, 7542-44, 7550

LIRR #530 was a one-of-a-kind car on LIRR. It was built by Budd in 1941 as a parlor car with 30 seats and 1 drawing room for NYC's new streamlined Empire State Express. When acquired by LIRR in 1967, it was converted to a 24 seat coach with bar. Note: Five of the large windows on this side of the car were blanked during the conversion.   Photo: George Votava Archive: Dave Keller

Repainted in spring/summer 1971 to LIRR colors. Retired 1975. Sold to Tuman Demolition Company; scraped 1976.

LIRR #8570 ex-FEC HOMESTEAD Richmond Hill
(Hoskins-Lynch)

Operated in its FEC paint scheme until being repainted, relettered, and renumbered 'APAQUOGUE' #2064 6/9/1971.  Used as a lounge-observation car on parlor CANNONBALL car trains.

Modernized 10/1958 and renumbered #7614 Scrapped 9/13/1972 by Naporano Iron and Metal Company, Newark NJ

Note the "Futura" lettering which was considered VERY modern for 1939-40.
Info: Jeff Erlitz

“M” designating the unit to be a “motor” or powered control cab and the “P” meaning “passenger”, while the “54” was the length of the car, bulkhead to bulkhead. As an aside, an MU baggage car was an “MPB54” because it was powered, it carried passengers AND it carried baggage. However, the electrics were MP54  or T54 units (“T” meaning trailer; non-powered).  And some of the OLDER, original purchase MP54 units had clerestory roofs and not the famous arched roofs.   Information: Dave Keller

MP54 means Motor/Passenger car which is 54' long. (there were also "blind motors" which were MP54 cars with no windshields and which were placed within the consist of a train to provide additional power to assist the lead MP54 which was NOT blind. Sort of like a steam locomotive coupled in the middle of a freight train with no view of the road ahead, positioned only to assist the lead steam locomotive(s) in hauling the train. 

MPB54 means Motor/Passenger/Baggage car which is 54' long (known as a "combine car.")
T39, T54 means Trailer cars (no motors) which are 39' or 54' long and were placed in trains with a motor car (MP54) at either end.
MPBM54 means Motor/Passenger/Baggage/Mail cars which are 54' long.
MBM62 means Motor/Baggage/Mail cars which are 62' long, with no vestibules.
The suffixes on the same number cars (MP54a, MP54b, MP54c, etc.) meant various changes such as arched roofs vs. clerestory roofs, etc.)  Research: Dave Keller

Earlier MP54 and MP54A cars had their controls removed, but were not rebuilt (with ASC) and remained in service as mid-train motor trailer cars, since they also had weak collision posts, which was pointed out after the 1950 crashes.  Eight cars in the 1600 series of MP54A cars did, indeed, get ASC and finished their decades of service as control motor cars with ASC and were  occasionally seen at the headend of a train. (Control motors 1632, 1634, 1641, 1651, 1661, 1665, 1666) And, of course, there was CT54A #1677, club car "ROCKAWAY",  which remained a control trailer with ASC) but some of these cars, 1641, 1651 and 1661 had their ASC removed in later years. Research: Mike Boland
Note: MP54's, were about another 10 feet longer, 5 feet for each vestibule at both ends of the car, at 64' than the MP62 series. 

MP54 was the first 30 cars 1421 through 1450 built by ACF at its Jackson and Sharp (merged into ACF) plant in Delaware in 1908.

MP54A #1509-interior 10/19/1936
Archive: Mike Boland

MP54A #1632 MPB54 #1391 Heritage cars at Port Washington 7/06/1976 (Votava-Boland)

Babylon Yard in the 1960's. MP54A #1666 was one of ten control motor cars in this class equipped with speed control.
Occasionally a train had a consist with this car at the headend. Built in 1914, the later cars in this class had stronger collision
posts. It was scrapped on February 28, 1969.
 Photo: George Votava Archive: Mike Boland

MP54A #1405 outside the Dunton Car Shop on May 12, 1940. This was an order of 20 cars built by ACF and had minor differences from the 30 MP54 fleet of cars built in 1908, a year earlier. Photo: George Votava Archive: Mike Boland

MP54A #1505 has new safety glass windows with aluminum frames. Note the trailer behind this control motor, built in 1910 and scrapped in January 1956. This car, and many others had their controls and headlights removed and ran off their last years as motor trailers in mid-train service. Rockaway Park c.1940's. Photo: George Votava Archive: Mike Boland

MP54A #1474 leads a train with a car behind it in the new Tichy paint scheme. This car had no Automatic Speed Control (ASC) installed so this photo must have been taken prior to 1951. The car was scrapped August 1955. Archive: Mike Boland

These 45 cars, and the 40 P54D's converted and motorized in 1930 (MP54D1 1944 through 1983) were the last MP54's built for the LIRR.

The seating capacity was for 69 passengers. These cars had a special safety feature which was a door interlocking device, or signal light, indicating to the motorman that the doors are closed.  Each car had train control and had roller bearing trucks.  Additional lights made for better lighting. These new cars and the conversion of 40 P54D steam cars to control motor MP54D1's allowed the railroad to run 12-car MU trains. 

Its easiest spotting sign are the lack of deck sash and only THREE utility vents along the side of the roof for ventilation. Also, the end door is more recessed, due to improved and thickened collision posts. The cars also had end drip strips above the storm door at the ends of each car.

The cars also had two different types of trucks and these were the only cars that arrived with the large, squared-off headlight and destination lights, which were removed later. Some cars had porthole-style side and end doors, while other cars had large, single-pane side and end doors; perhaps this is a clue as to the cars' original builder. Research: Mike Boland

MP54C #1722 Hempstead 1938 (Ziel-Boland)

MP54C #1856 renumbered to #4856 Babylon 5/15/1955 (Votava-Boland)

MP54C #1731 Jamaica 1960's (Zahn-Boland)

LIRR #4855 MP54C Woodside 1969

MP54C end - Dunton 1960's (Zahn-Boland)

About half of the fleet of MU cars received ASC, the remainder did not. This was a big savings of money; in fact, the LIRR was so broke that the PRR and New York State paid for the installation of ASC. This was a new class of car; as until this time, the railroad had only control motor cars and trailers, but after 1951 this all changed. Not until 1953 and 1955, did the railroad buy new motor trailer cars, specifically built as such by Pullman-Standard. 

Many control motor cars ran in trains and did not have ASC and thus used in mid-train service, even though they specifically were NOT converted to motor trailers. With the car rehabilitation program in 1955, these cars eventually had their controls removed and were renumbered and rebuilt into the 5000-series of cars.

What I like about the LIRR is that there were always exceptions and a number of cars in the 1700-series of arch motors never were converted, and had never been given ASC. They were considered motor trailers even though they were not converted, and in later years their class was changed to indicate they were a motor trailer even when they were not in the shops to have the conversion. A car like this was arch roof 1776, a great number for the Bicentennial. Research: Mike Boland

MP54T #1450  Port Washington view W 10/13/62

Part of the first MP54s on the LIRR, it was converted to a motor trailer with the same car number. Perhaps  the shops got lazy or forgot to removed the headlights.

Built in 1908 and was the last car of the class MP54. Car 1451and up were class MP54A; these had slight changes in seating, other modifications, and were a few  inches longer than the earlier MP54 class cars. 
Info: Mike Boland

MP54AT #1403 in Tichy scheme - Converted to a motor trailer  - West Hempstead  5/04/1952 (Votava-Boland)

#1350-1381
#1385-1399

At the Dunton Car Shop combine MPB54 #1379 had the passenger end of the car photographed on November 9, 1933.

There were subtle differences in the end details of headend MU cars.  Note the large scissors-like apparatus that operated the doors at this time; also note the cowcatcher or pilot behind the coupler and in front of the trucks, removed in the 1950's with the advent of speed control.  Collection of Ron Ziel.

LIRR  #4398 (ex-#1398) MPB54 in Dashing Dan scheme 
Woodside Station 06/10/1969

#1379 MPB54 Tuscan red with Dulux 
gold lettering Pre-1950

#1372 MPB54 Tichy scheme 
Jamaica c.1955

MB62  at Clinton Rd. (Henry Maywald-Mike Boland)

MB62 #4205 (Henry Maywald-Mike Boland)

Look for the mail compartment on the two MBM62's, and that will tell you whether it's a MBM62 or a straight MB62. The MB62's have two windows between the doors and a small window at each end of the car. It's a different look for the MBM62's, a fascinating car and almost as unique as the second car in this consist, an MPBM54. 

The second car is a Motorized Passenger Baggage Mail MPBM5 car and both sides of the car are a little different in the baggage-mail area. Baggage-mail MU's were 1205-1219, although 1215 and up were used as diesel cars, with 1217-1219 running all their years as steam/diesel cars.

The third car is an regular combine, a passenger baggage car, class MPB54, one of the later ones built by ACF since
its baggage door cuts into the letterboard, unlike the earlier cars built by Standard Steel and scrapped in the 1950's. Many of these cars were modernized beginning with 4371 up to 4398, I believe. This combine might be carrying bagged mail or newspapers. Research: Mike Boland

MB62 #1215 REA at Babylon 2/08/1947 (Votava-Boland)

MU REA MB62 #4212 REA RPO Johnson Ave. yard, Jamaica 4/21/1962  (Will V. Faxon, Jr. - Dave Keller

MBM62 #4209 - Johnson Ave., Jamaica 1/15/1964  
(Henry Maywald-Mike Boland)

MBM62 #4210 (Henry Maywald-Mike Boland)

BG72B

Modernized 12/1955 and renumbered #7723. Withdrawn from service 1970.

MP41

LIRR - PULLMAN Promotional  Photo 80 ft., AC, 120 seat commuter car

MP72C train eastbound at Sunnyside mid-1960's (Maywald-Boland)

MP72C #2512 - Dunton early 1960's
(Maywald-Boland)

LIRR #2519 MP72C Jamaica 1969
Archive: Dave Keller

MP72C West Hempstead early 1970's
Archive: Mike Boland

Note: MP75 "Zip" cars did NOT have portholes at their ends; instead, a single square window to match the end and side doors.

2846-2898 Even Nos. only plus 2792, 2794, 2796

2702-2736 Even #’s only

Cars #9001-9016 built 1968
Cars #9017-9246 built 1969
Cars #9247-9476, 9491-9492, 9435-9438 built 1970
Cars #9477-9490, 9493-9534, 9539-9620 built 1971
Cars #9621-9770 ordered/built 1972

836 cars purchased  7001-7836
Long Island Rail Road: 836 cars